Stars and Stripes Then and Now

Using Primary Sources

United States Flag Lessons

Stars and Stripes Then and Now

Standard/Objectives

• Identify key ideals of the United States’ democratic republican form of government such as liberty and justice. (NCSS) • Part A: Students will understand why a national flag was created and the process behind the creation. Students will demonstrate an understanding by creating a timeline about five important flags. • Part B: Students will understand the meaning and memorize the words to the Pledge of Allegiance. Students will demonstrate proficiency by participating in the hidden word game.

Materials United States Flag photograph card and facsimile; Copies of the student reproducibles (pages 45–47); Copy of the timeline frame written on the board (from the back of the photograph card); Pocket chart; Words to the Pledge of Allegiance written on sentence strips

Part A: The Photograph Card Discussion Questions Activate prior knowledge by asking students, “What is a flag? What does the United States flag look like?” Continue to elicit information and stretch student thinking with prompts such as, “Why do we need a flag?” and “How does seeing the United States flag make you feel?”

Then photograph: Look at the painting and tell students that this is a picture of people doing something important for America. • What things, other than people, do you notice in this picture? • Look carefully at the woman on the right. What is she doing? • Who do you think the men are? Why are they at this woman’s house? • What do you notice about the flag? Now photograph: Now look at this photograph of the capitol building. • How many flags do you see in this picture? • How are the flags different from each other? How are they the same? • Why are all of these flags flying at one time? What do you think the special occasion might be?

Using the Primary Source 1. Have the students sit around you on the floor. Share the two photographs with them one at a time asking the questions above. Share information you learned by reading the background information for the teacher, It’s a Grand Old Flag (page 43). 2. Then, read the background information for the students from the back of the photograph card as you let the students see the two photographs on the front of the card. If you’d prefer, you can give students copies of A Flag for Us All (page 45), which has the two photographs and the student background information. #24841—Primary Sources: My Country

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Stars and Stripes Then and Now (cont.) Part A: The Photograph Card (cont.) Using the Primary Source (cont.) 3. Use the timeline you have drawn on the board to begin a class timeline about five American flags. You may want to start by filling in the five significant dates above the horizontal line (1776 Grand Union; 1777 Stars and Stripes; 1790 Stars in a Circle; 1814 Star Spangled Banner; and 1960 50-star flag). 4. Complete the timeline as a class or have students work on their own timelines in small groups. Make sure the students write a description of each flag below the horizontal line and that the dates above the line are sequential. 5. You can assess how well students are able to use timelines with the following documentbased assessments: Mapping the World (page 74) or American Technology (page 75).

Part B: The Facsimile Discussion Questions • Is this a story? A poem? A song? How can you tell? • What is a pledge? • Who says this? Why? When? • Do you have to say this? Using the Primary Source 1. Review the words to the Pledge of Allegiance from the facsimile and complete the discussion questions above. Share information you learned by reading the background information for the teacher, The Pledge of Allegiance (page 44). Then, read Making a Promise (page 46). 2. Place the sentence strips with the Pledge of Allegiance into the pocket chart. With the students, choral read the entire passage once. Assign students to small groups and ask them to practice with their group until they feel they can say the pledge together without looking. Give groups 5 minutes to practice and then have them perform. 3. Then, introduce the hidden word game. Ask the students to put their heads down and cover their eyes. Turn one of the sentence strips over so the words are not showing. But, leave the strip in the same place in the pocket chart. Tell students to open their eyes and read the pledge quietly. Students should raise their hands when they think they know the hidden word(s). 4. When a student correctly answers the hidden words, turn the strip over again and read the words that were hidden. Replace the strip in the pocket chart right side up. Tell students to read the pledge again and to get ready to try again. Give them a minute to re-read the text. The student who answered correctly can come up to the pocket chart and choose the next strip to be turned over while the rest of the class closes their eyes.


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#24841—Primary Sources: My Country



Stars and Stripes Then and Now (cont.) Part B: The Facsimile (cont.) Using the Primary Source (cont.) 5. This game can also be played with teams, alternating who turns the strip and who tries to answer which words have been hidden. Keep the pocket chart up in the room and let the students keep challenging each other during independent centers time.

Part C: Connecting to Primary Sources Home-School Connection • Give students copies of the Stars and Stripes Home-School Connection Letter (page 47). Explain the assignment to the students and answer any questions. Have students fill in their parents’ names and the date at the top of the letter. Then, they should sign the bottom. Provide poster paper for this project and assign a due date for the finished flags. Content-Area Connections • Art Connections—Betsy Ross, Rebecca Young, and Mary Pickersgill are famous for the flags they sewed. Have students try to sew something. Or, cut out pictures from magazines. Sort them by the color most obvious in the composition and make piles of pictures predominately red, white, and blue. Use those pictures to create a collage flag. Trim the edges as needed to fit into your flag design. • Math Connections—Practice geometry by creating flags out of rectangles. Students can put small rectangles end to end to make long rectangles for stripes. They can use single rectangles to represent stars. Or, students can practice multiplication arrays with rows of stars. Look at early flags that had fewer than 50 stars. How were the stars arranged? Or, practice fractions by learning to fold a flag properly. Fold it in half twice, widthwise. Fold a triangle, starting at the stripe end, and repeat until only the blue end is showing. Fold the last bit so that the last triangle tucks inside the folds. • Science Connections—“Put your hand over your heart.” Study the circulatory system. Learn about arteries, capillaries, and veins. Or, put different color filters in front of a light source. See what happens when different colored papers are seen through the filters. What happens to the colors? Or, learn about constellations. The stars on the flag’s blue background are supposed to represent a constellation. What are some famous constellations? Read Aloud Titles • Campbell, Susan. The Flag Maker. • Langton, Jane. The Fragile Flag. • Prince, April. Meet Our Flag, Old Glory. • Ryan, Pam Munoz. The Flag We Love. • Thomson, Sarah. Stars and Stripes: The Story of the American Flag. #24841—Primary Sources: My Country

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It’s a Grand Old Flag

Photograph Background Information for the Teacher

On New Year’s Day in 1776, George Washington had the Grand Union flag raised to honor the colonies. This flag of the Revolution incorporated the British Union Jack in the upper, left corner. It also had 13 red and white stripes to boldly symbolize the colonies. However, Loyalists interpreted the raising of the Union Grand as a sign of Washington’s compliance with King George’s recent plea for the colonies to surrender. Obviously, the new country needed a flag all its own; no more mixed messages. A different flag was needed, one to promote national pride and unity, away from any hint of British rule. Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was assigned the task. His family crest, with three, six-pointed stars, inspired him. The new American flag was to keep the 13 red and white stripes but replace the Union Jack. Thirteen white stars on a blue background would symbolize the Union. The Stars and Stripes was born! The Continental Congress met the following year and passed the first Flag Act on June 14, 1777. We now celebrate that anniversary every year as Flag Day. No proportional dimensions were specified and neither was the pattern for the stars. The features themselves were left up to the individual flag makers until 1912. The stars were first put in a circle around 1790. Some flag makers arranged the stars in tidy rows while others put the stars in random order. The number of points on each star was also left to interpretation. Some stars had six points and some had eight. Betsy Ross sewed flags for colonial leaders and is credited for introducing the five-pointed star, a shape easy for her to cut from the fabric. The commander of Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, sent two officers to flag maker Mary Pickersgill to commission an enormous flag. Mary worked with her daughter to make an outstanding flag. It was 30 x 40 feet (9.14 x 12.2 meters). This was big enough for the British to see from quite a distance. On September 13, 1814, the British attacked Baltimore. Fort McHenry did not surrender and the giant flag was still there the next day to inspire Francis Scott Key to write the poem that would later become America’s national anthem. The oversized flag was later named for the title of Key’s poem and continues to be called the Star Spangled Banner even today. It is currently housed in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History. To this day, there are 13 red and white stripes, one for each of the original colonies. As the number of states in the Union continued to grow, so did the number of stars. Each star on the blue background represents one state. The American flag has looked much the same since 1960—13 stripes and 50 stars. The stars, nine rows horizontally and eleven rows vertically, all have one of the five points turned to the top. While the flag had to make some changes to reflect its growing country over the years, the Stars and Stripes remained a powerful symbol. The flag continues to bring the people of the country together, reminding them of the pride Americans take in their country’s values and beliefs. ©Teacher Created Materials

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The Pledge of Allegiance

Facsimile Background Information for the Teacher Francis Bellamy was a minister. He strongly believed in striving for social and economic equality for everyone. His much-too-socialist sermons were not received well and he was asked to leave his church. The owner and editor of The Youth’s Companion magazine liked Bellamy, and invited him to work for the magazine. Bellamy accepted. He also accepted a leadership position on a committee for the National Education Association. It became his responsibility to plan a program for the public schools’ celebration of Columbus Day. He decided a ceremony around raising the flag would be appropriate and that the children should have something to recite. The original Pledge of Allegiance first appeared in The Youth’s Companion magazine in September 1892. Bellamy’s original passage, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands—one nation indivisible—with liberty and justice for all,” was memorized and recited by millions of children that year. It was a huge success. While writing, Bellamy thought about the Declaration of Independence. The idea of liberty and justice for all was important, and he knew he wanted to include that. He was tempted to put equality in his pledge along with liberty and justice, but he didn’t because he knew others on the committee were against equal rights for women and for blacks. He thought about the flag and what it stood for. The flag was a symbol of a unity that would not be broken. Bellamy made sure that the words “one nation indivisible” were in the pledge to honor the struggle and the triumph of Americans through time. The pledge received its first addition one month after its September publication. It was a simple change—the word to was added before the Republic. The first National Flag Conference was held in Washington, D.C., in 1923. It was there that the second change took place. The words the Flag of the United States of America replace the words my flag. Bellamy was not happy about this, but the change was made anyway. Congress didn’t formally adopt the Pledge of Allegiance until 1942. Then, just one year later, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to require students to say it in school. Not, however, because of the current issue of separating church and state. Oddly enough, the now controversial words “under God” weren’t added until much later, in 1954. The 1943 Supreme Court ruling was based on the idea of forcing children to recite it. Instead, children could be asked to say it. Currently, the question is whether or not the pledge has also become a kind of public prayer. Bellamy’s granddaughter has said she feels her grandfather would disapprove of this addition as well. Although at one time he was a minister, his belief in God wavered in later years and ultimately he stopped attending church. The original purpose of reciting this promise, the Pledge of Allegiance, continues—to show support of America and to honor the symbol of the nation. The pledge helps Americans rededicate their hearts to the ideals of freedom and justice that make them proud. #24841—Primary Sources: My Country

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United States Flag Reproducibles

A Flag for Us All The Betsy Ross Flag Source: The Library of Congress

Capitol Building with Flags Source: Eyewire

General George Washington flew a flag over his fort. It was the Grand Union flag. It had 13 red and white stripes. It also had a little British flag in the corner. That was in 1776. But, America was a new country. It needed a new flag. So, one was made. This new flag had the same 13 red and white stripes. The British part was gone. Now, it had 13 white stars. The stars were on a blue square. This 1777 flag was called the Stars and Stripes. The flag brought the country together. It made people proud. In 1790, a new flag was made with the stars in a circle. In 1814, a large flag flew over Fort McHenry. It had 15 stripes. It inspired “The Star Spangled Banner.” Today the flag has 50 stars. There is one star for each state. The stars are in rows. There are 13 stripes. The flag has looked the same since 1960. It still makes Americans proud. ©Teacher Created Materials

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Making a Promise

A pledge is a promise. The Pledge of Allegiance is a promise to America. It means you will respect the flag. It means you will honor America. Francis Bellamy wrote it. He wanted children to say it on Columbus Day. The pledge he wrote was shorter than what we say today. He wrote, “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Does it sound different? Both children and adults say the Pledge of Allegiance. We say it when we raise a flag. As you say it, you should be standing. And, you put your right hand over your heart. If you have a hat, you should take it off. You should face the flag as you say your promise.


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Stars and Stripes Home-School Connection Letter

________________________ (date)

Dear ______________________________________, I am learning about the American flag in school right now. Today, we learned that it’s called the Stars and Stripes. Francis Hopkinson designed it. There is one star for each state and one stripe for each of the original colonies. The stars are white on a blue background. The 13 stripes are red and white. Betsy Ross was a flag maker. She put the stars in a circle. Now, the stars are in rows. We have 50 states, so there are 50 stars. Some old flags don’t have that many stars because there weren’t that many states yet. My class also talked about the Pledge of Allegiance. I know that a pledge is a promise. I can decide if I want to make a promise or not. If I do want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, I stand facing the flag. If I’m wearing a hat, I need to take it off. I put my right hand over my heart and when I am finished saying it, I am quiet. We talked about why there are flags and that they are symbols for something bigger. Our flag is a symbol for our country and for what we believe in. The parts on the flag, like the stars and the stripes, are also symbols for special parts of our country. When people look at the flag, they think about the things that are important to our country, like freedom, justice, and equality. My teacher would like me to make a flag for our family. There should be one star for each person. I can choose what colors I think are important for our family and if I want to include any other symbols, I may. When people look at this flag, they should see things that are important to us. My teacher gave me this poster paper to use. Please help me with this project. Love,

_____________________________________


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These flags are on the capitol building.

This is one of the country’s first flags.

United States Flag

United States Flag Then and Now

A Flag for Us All

Showing What You Know Directions: Look carefully at the two pictures. Read the passage. Use the information you learn to help you complete the timeline. Most of the dates are already included. Fill in the missing date. Then, below each date, write what happened in that year. One has been done for you.

1776

1790

1960

The Star Spangled Banner waved over Fort McHenry.

1776

General George Washington flew a flag over his fort. It was the Grand Union flag. It had 13 red and white stripes. It also had a little British flag in the corner. That was in 1776. But, America was a new country. It needed a new flag. So, one was made. This new flag had the same 13 red and white stripes. The British part was gone. Now, it had 13 white stars. The stars were on a blue square. This 1777 flag was called the Stars and Stripes. The flag brought the country together. It made people proud. In 1790, a new flag was made with the stars in a circle. In 1814, a large flag flew over Fort McHenry. It had 15 stripes. It inspired “The Star Spangled Banner.” Today the flag has 50 stars. There is one star for each state. The stars are in rows. There are 13 stripes. The flag has looked the same since 1960. It still makes Americans proud.

Challenge • Draw a rectangle. Now draw a smaller rectangle in the upper left corner. See if you can draw a flag like the one that flew over Fort McHenry. It had 15 stripes and 15 stars.

#8188 Primary Sources—My Country Then and Now

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